More Air NZ for Auckland-Wellington route

25 May 2006

Aucklanders are starting their business day earlier if Air New Zealand’s domestic travel trends are anything to go by. From 10 July, Air New Zealand will introduce a new 6am weekday service from Auckland to Wellington and new late night services from Wellington to Auckland following strong demand for these flights.

“Demand is consistently high for the first few Auckland to Wellington flights, suggesting our current first service at 7am is no longer sufficient to meet the growing desire for an early morning start in the capital,” said Air New Zealand Group General Manager, Short Haul Airline Norm Thompson.

“We’re also seeing growth in demand for evening flights from Wellington to Auckland so we’ve added a new last service departing Wellington at 9pm on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.”

In order to operate the additional flights, Air New Zealand will cancel its 9pm service from Auckland to Wellington on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the last flight now departing at 8.30pm.

The national carrier has also added two extra services between Wellington and Christchurch this weekend to help rugby fans get to Saturday’s Rebel Sports Super 14 finals clash.

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Mr Thompson said demand for flights between Wellington and Christchurch had surged following the Hurricanes win over the Waratahs at the weekend.

“As a sponsor of the Rebel Sports Super 14 competition, we’re committed to getting fans to and from the games, after all there’s nothing quite like being there to watch the action unfold. We have a number of Hurricanes and Crusaders fans at Air New Zealand, and I know they’ve been busy finding ways to show their fanatical support for their team this weekend.

“We’ll be closely monitoring flights over the next few days and if demand remains strong, we’ll look at adding more flights,” said Mr Thompson.